Delusions and Conclusions
by rose41703
Summary: Adrien gets the flu, and the high temperatures keep messing with his brain. Because there's no way his friends have anything in common with the rest of Paris's Superheros. Right?
1. Chapter 1

Paris is a beautiful city, especially at night. The sunsets, all the lights, and the Eiffel tower looks best when it's lit. Adrien loved to look out over his city at night running from rooftop to rooftop, or just sitting on the Eiffel tower with his lady. When they went out on patrol's and nothing was happening so they would just sit up there and talk for however long he could convince her to stay after they checked the city. But then there were the nights when something did happen.

Adrien never did like late night akuma attacks they usually lasted a few hours; which lead to hard to get up mornings. He cherished any opportunity to see his lady, he just wished that it was easier to get up the mornings that followed these late night meetings. Being a Friday night meant that he had some time to sleep in the next morning, but not much. He got about an extra half hour of sleep before a full day of photo shoots, homework, and piano practice. Tonight's akuma had proven a challenge for Paris' superhero duo.

The akuma, while not that tough, had something of an advantage on them. Tonight Hawkmoth had created Manphibian, someone who worked at the zoo and was against taking out the amphibian exhibit to make way for an insect garden. Manphibian had sticky pads on his hand and feet, which now looked like those of a frog, that allowed him to stick to the sides of buildings and other structures with ease despite the rain making them slippery. His akuma was in his salamander keychain. Unfortunately, the slickness of the rooftops made it nearly impossible to catch him. As if his luck wasn't cruel enough to him he was starting to get sick. It wasn't anything too severe, so he was just going to have to push through it. He knew better than to bring it up. If his lady were to find out she would do everything within her power to send him home, or at the very least make sure he was resting. Moreover, the instant he returned home, with the exception of something serious, Adrien would be doing precisely what he was doing right now, pushing through it and getting the job done. He had a photo shoot tomorrow followed by a Chinese lesson. His father had expectations and Adrien, being the face of his father's company, was expected to live up to these expectations.

Adrien was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Ladybug call for her lucky charm, which happened to be a giant heating lamp. With the rain finally ending and a way to make him come to them capturing the akuma was moderately easy from there. As the two bumped fists in their customary "pound it" Ladybug pulled Chat back and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Chat you're burning up! Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" she exclaimed.

"I purromise my lady I feel purrfectly feline." He joked

She rolled her eyes but the worried look still persisted.

"Just promise me that you'll go home as fast as possible alright?"

"If it makes M'lady rest easy then I promise to go straight home and rest up." He bowed

She rolled her eyes again, but this time a slight smile replaced her previously worried expression.

"I've got to get going before I change back. Don't stay out too late."

She threw her yo-yo zipping away to go home and get some rest. Rest, that sounded great. His body felt weak and exhausted beyond reason. It felt cold, too cold for being the middle of September. Maybe if he just shut his eyes for a few seconds no one was here nobody would care. He felt his eyelids start to close and he didn't feel like fighting off the sleep. He would just take a quick rest, then back to getting home, but he didn't want to go home. Going home meant that he was going to have to face a two-hour minimum photoshoot, and at least an hour and a half of Chinese lessons. Maybe he could just go to sleep here? It's not like anyone would know as long as he got back before anyone came to check for him tomorrow morning. Until a beep from his miraculous reminded him that he only had three minutes to get home and that was almost halfway across Paris. Not to mention Adrien didn't have any Camembert on him for when he needed to transform again to get home.

He managed to get home okay after that, albeit with a few stumbles along the way, but he was still exhausted. His transformation dropped the moment his feet landed on the floor. Plagg choosing to be oddly silent and just went over to where he knew the cheese was. In any other instance, Adrien might have been worried about the lack of complaints, but he was too exhausted to worry. His room felt below freezing, but he couldn't bring himself to care though. He stumbled over to his bed before falling onto it; he fell asleep the moment his head hit the mattress.

Plagg finished his cheese before looking over at his Chat, the poor boy looked bad. He was burning up, but his whole body was shivering. He was covered in sweat and his hair was matted down to his head from a mix of the sweat and rain from earlier. It was a good thing he hadn't pulled a blanket over himself, the lack of a blanket and coolness of the room might help to lower his temperature. Plagg sighed trying to shake off the worry. Humans, with all their fancy machines, antibiotics, and other medicines, weren't invincible. And as much as Plagg may have wished otherwise Adrien was no exception to that superhero or not.

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AN: This is the first fanfiction I have written. I hope you enjoy, also criticism is welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** Just wanted to say thanks for the positive reviews, sorry it took forever, and I hope you enjoy

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Marinette sat on her bed staring out the window a blank expression on her face.

"What's wrong Marinette?" Tikki asked

"It's Chat, I'm still worried about him, what if he didn't get back home? What if he's passed out somewhere on a roof and now he's going to die of either whatever sickness he's got or hypothermia, or-"

"Marinette," Tikki interrupted, "you trust Chat Noir don't you?"

"Of course I trust him, but I'm just worried"

"I'm sure he's fine, besides it's late and you need some sleep" Tikki chided.

"You're right Tikki" Marinette sighed.

She knew Chat was fully capable of taking care of himself, but something about seeing him sick made her stomach turn in knots. She didn't like it and she hoped her partner was alright.

~Nathalie~

Nathalie Sancoeur considered herself to be a reasonable woman. But she would not put up with things like tardiness, laziness, or excuses. She also knew that she had never seen Adrien be or use any of those things. So after five minutes of waiting for him to come down the stairs, she came to his room. Stopping and knocking on the door, no answer. She poked her head in to find him curled in a ball, covered in sweat, and shaking. She walked over to him to check his temperature. He barely opened his eyes when she put her hand on his forehead, he was burning up. She left the room, grabbed a towel, and got it wet making sure to wring it out so it wasn't dripping too much. When she placed the towel on his forehead Adrien opened his eyes a little more. His eyes actually focusing on her this time. He looked panicked and tried to sit up only to be firmly pushed back down by Natalie. He stared up at her surprised and confused by her action.

"Nathalie, I have to get up," he said, voice low and hoarse.

"No. You will be staying in bed until your temperature goes down and you feel better." She stated.

"But-" he started

"Adrien, go back to sleep" she cut him off.

"I'm fine. I can prove it" he muttered slowly sitting up.

Nathalie sent him a questioning stare but didn't stop him this time as he sat up. He sat at the edge of the bed and stood up, or tried to anyway. As soon as he tried to fully stand up his knees bucked and Natalie catching him was the only thing that kept him from hitting the ground. She gave him a stern look as she tucked him back into bed properly. He avoided her gaze as she did.

"Go back to bed Adrien," she ordered.

"But my father" he protested

"I'll handle it," she assured him.

"...Okay" he mumbled before closing his eyes again.

Nathalie walked back into Gabriel's office.

"Sir, Adrien is sick and won't be able to do the photoshoot or Chinese lesson" She informed him

"Nathalie Adrien is my son, and I will not be told how to raise him by-" Gabriel started

"With all due respect, Gabriel, Adrien is burning up and lacks the ability to stand up on his own. He's staying in bed." Nathalie said

Gabriel scowled but nodded."Make sure he gets better"

She nodded and left. Now that that was taken care of Natalie had some calls to make and medicine to buy.

~Adrien~

There were two things Adrien knew about Nathalie. One, she's the most organized and composed person to walk the planet. Two, dying is the only thing she considers an acceptable reason not to show up for something. So when he was told to lay back down and go back to sleep he was both confused and a lot more worried about his health. The towel felt amazing, a little cold, but good. His mind was all over the place and not making much sense. He should warn Nino about not going to school on Monday. He began imagining what would happen Monday morning Nino would be moping like he always did when he wasn't there. Or was that him when Nino was gone? Alya would be concerned but not too worried. Then there was Marinette, she would worry, he didn't want her to worry. She didn't look as pretty when she worried too much. Those pretty blue eyes made his stomach twist when they were filled with worry guilt, or doubt; especially if it was because of him. Her eyes were so pretty, they should always be filled with happiness, like his lady. He loved to see her smile, especially when it reached her eyes. They were such a pretty blue. She was pretty. He loved her. He loved his lady very much. She was so pretty, sweet, pretty, kind, pretty, selfless, pretty, confident, pretty, smart, and really really pretty.

Nathalie chose then to walk back in, giving him medicine for the fever. After the medicine started to help with the fever he started to think about how he had just switched from Marinette to Ladybug mid-ramble. Sure his lady and his princess looked similar, they had the same eyes, hair color, they both wore pigtails too. The only big difference he could come up with was their confidence or lack thereof in Marinette's case. The had physical differences as well, he was sure. He just couldn't think of any at the moment because he was sick and sleepy. Yeah, he was still loopy on cough syrup or whatever Natalie had given him for his fever and throat. Sure they looked similar, but that didn't mean they were the same person. People connected completely unrelated topics, things, or people all the time when they rambled sick or not. His brain was just playing tricks on him. He just needed more sleep, this would all sound crazy when he could think straight. He closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. Hoping some more rest would help him find his rationality.

~Gabriel~

Gabriel Agreste, for all of his shortcomings as a father, did care about Adrien. He did everything he could to protect him. So when Natalie left his office after informing him that Adrien had gotten sick, Gabriel began to panic. _How is this possible? He has a check-up at least once a month! _Surely if this was something serious the doctors would have caught it before this, he reasoned. Maybe it's just something minor, but he wouldn't lack the ability to stand from some minor illness. He took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves. _He probably caught something going around his school _Gabriel reasoned. This was one of the many things Gabriel had been trying to protect Adrien from by keeping him homeschooled. The world was dangerous, even without the miraculous' as a factor in that equation.

Gabriel sighed before asking Nathalie to get Adrien's personal doctor to come to the house. As he attempted to calm his worried mind and focus on his work he felt his miraculous alert him his akuma victim was ready for him.

~Marinette~

Marinette was worried. Chat Noir didn't look good when she left him last night. She hoped that he got home okay. She should have noticed sooner, he seemed slower and out of it yesterday, but she had just blamed that on the fact that it was late and raining. She shouldn't have left him alone last night. There was this feeling of guilt that wouldn't leave her alone. She tried to take her mind off of it and work on her designs. It wasn't going very well all she could manage to do was doodle little black cats in the corners of her sketchbook. This only made her think of her partner and increased the guilt she felt. Tikki had been trying to cheer her up and continued assuring her that Chat was probably fine, just stuck in bed getting better. A few minutes into Marinette's spiral of guilt a loud boom sounded outside. She checked the news to see that there was in fact another akuma by the trocadéro. She transformed and started off, silently hoping that this wouldn't be too difficult since Chat was out of commission.

~Adrien~

When Adrien woke up it was dark outside, but he could just barely see the last glimpses of the sunset. But he still had a problem; napping didn't help. His mind kept mixing the two together in his dreams. One moment Ladybug was confessing her love for him and the next he was kissing Marinette. But this was crazy. These girls were two separate people. They weren't nearly as similar as his mind was making them out to be.

Right?

Yeah, Marinette and Ladybug had nothing in common. Well sure they did have a few things in common, but they had way more differences. He was sure that they were completely separate girls. How could shy Marinette possibly be confident and witty Ladybug? It was impossible.

"Plagg?"

"What?"

"Do you think Marinette and Ladybug have anything in common?"

There was a long pause before Plagg answered.

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know...they just seem so different but at the same time I can't help but feel that they're similar."

"It's been my experience that gut instinct isn't wrong very often"

"Well then, what should I do? It's not like I can go up to Marinette and just ask, 'hey, are you M'Lady? The girl of my dreams, the love of my life?'"

"That's up to you, I'm not good at this"

Adrien sighed, realizing Plagg wouldn't be much more help.

"Maybe I should just call Nino then. He should know I'm not coming Monday."

He picked up his phone and started scrolling through his contacts. Alya, Chloe...Marinette...Nino. Click.

"Come on, pick up..." Adrien muttered.

Nino sure was taking his time to answer, Adrien knew he stayed up late ether gaming or making new music. As he finally heard the phone being answered he froze as he heard a very female and very much not Nino voice answer.

"...Hello?"

~Marinette~

Marinette did not like the fact that she had left Chat to get home by himself. The guilt was still eating away at her. The feeling of a lump growing in the bottom of her stomach wasn't the greatest ether. And what was she supposed to do while he was sick? Akumas were more or less a daily occurrence and with her feline partner out of commission that meant that she would have to face whatever Hawkmoth threw at her without his help. Just going without him during the attacks today had been bad enough. The akuma wasn't stronger than any of the others she had faced, it was just hard when she was used to having her flirt of a partner there when she needed him. Patrol was going to be lonely without him there. It wouldn't be as entertaining without all the banter and ridiculous puns to roll her eyes at. She was pulled from these thoughts by her phone ringing. _Odd_, she thought. It was really late for anyone she knew to be calling but she decided to look at the contact name anyways.

_Incoming Call: _Adrien Agreste

"Tikki!" She practically shrieked, cupping her hand over her mouth in fear of waking her parents.

"What is it Marinette?" She asked with a yawn.

"Adrien is calling! He's calling _me_! Should I pick up? What would I say?!"

"Just answer the phone Marinette. I'm sure that he wants to talk about something if he's calling you this late. So don't worry about conversation starters, just be yourself."

"But myself tends to turn into a hopeless, stuttering, mess when I talk to him."

"Relax Marinette, you've gotten a lot better about talking to him face to face, so why should over the phone be any different?"

"Ugh, you're right Tikki," She sighed.

She took a deep breath before pressing the answer button. "...Hello?"

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**AN:** ...I'm sorry I'm evil. Cliffhangers are a thing of mine. Chapter 3 on its way. I'm using both my personal experience and my friends' experience with delusions brought on by high temperatures for Adrien's thought process.


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